Dopamine neurons have a role in movement, new study finds

<a rel=”lightbox” href=”http://img.medicalxpress.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2016/dopamineneur.jpg” title=”Dopamine neurons in the nucleus accumbens (left) and the dorsomedial striatum (right). Credit: I. B. Witten et al., Nature Neuroscience”> Dopamine neurons in the nucleus accumbens (left) and the dorsomedial striatum (right). Credit: I. B. Witten et al., Nature Neuroscience Princeton University researchers have found that dopamine – a brain chemical involved in learning, motivation and many other functions – also has a direct role in representing or encoding movement. The finding could help researchers better understand dopamine’s role in movement-related disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. The researchers used a new, more precise technique to record the activity of dopamine neurons at two regions within a part of the brain known as the striatum, which oversees action planning, motivation and reward perception. The researchers found that while…